AVOIDING FINANCIAL FAILURE

We live in a world where a government in debt can just print more money. Do you ever wish you could do that? To bad. You'd have to own your own country to do that. Fortunately, God has given you a way to get ahead.

Here are some five tips to help you avoid financial failure.

I. KEEP GOOD RECORDS.

“Riches can disappear fast… so watch your business interests closely. Know the state of your flocks and herds.” Pr. 27:23 (LB)

II. PLAN YOUR SPENDING

“Plan carefully and you will have plenty; if you act too quickly you will never have enough.” Pr. 21:5 (GN)

III. Save for the future

“Money that comes easily disappears quickly, but money that is gathered little by little will grow.” Pr. 13:11 (NCV)

IV. RETURN ten percent to God

“Bring to My Storehouse a full tenth of what you earn… Test Me in this, says the Lord. `I will open the windows of heaven for you and pour out all the blessings you need.” Mal 3:10 (NCV)

V. ENJOY WHAT YOU HAVE

“It is better to be satisfied with what you have than to always be wanting something else.” Eccl. 6:9 (GN)

For a full listen to today teaching, see www.thecreeksidechurch.org

Your Life is a Path

I just finished going through Andy Stanley's "Principle of the Path" and it is a great read. It is practical, interesting and focused.

Andy deals with the American lie, or human lie, that somehow we're going to make it personally if our intentions are right. We'll reach our goals, have a good marriage and a successful career if we just have good intentions. He clearly points out that it takes much more.

Andy points out the obvious fact, which most people choose to ignore, that our decisions create a path which produces predictable results. If we don't like the results we're getting, we need to change our decisions, small and large, which will put us on a different path and we'll see different results.

Andy uses many examples from his personal life and the Bible, especially Proverbs to see that there is a path we can all get on to achieve the purposes we were born for and the success we all want.

Suicide Questions

Last week during the teaching about Samson I mentioned the subject of suicide. As a result we had a few questions. I will list the questions and then deal with them as a whole.

Q1. Is suicide forgivable?

Q2. At what point do you repent after killing yourself?

Q3. Can you repent at the judgment seat?

Answer. Suicide is self-murder, so, technically, if murder is forgivable, then suicide is forgivable. The tough part is that forgiveness happens after repentance, and it is impossible to repent when you are dead. That being said, God is God and he knows the heart and we don't. We all know people who were in desperate levels of depression who took their own life. I am not ready to say all suicides are eternally lost, and neither will I say that all suicides are forgiven. This is another one of those times I am glad God is the judge. Suicide is an incredibly risky venture, from a spiritual point of view. It is never a good idea and if you are contemplating suicide you should tell someone safe who will take it seriously.

In terms of repenting at the judgement seat, there is no mention in the scripture of repentance at that point. It is a judgment seat, not a repentance seat. The time for repentance is before you die. Some teach that there are second and third choices to follow Christ after you die, but Hebrews says, "It is appointed to man once to die, after that to be judged." If you need to repent. do it now!

Abraham's Questions May 31

Hey Creekside... thanks for the questions this week.

Q1. I've met people who think Israel has no place in the Kingdom of God, because they crucified Christ.  Right or wrong?

A1. Wrong.  Israel are still God's chosen people.  The New Testament is full of references about God's grace and love fully extended to Israel.  In fact, Paul is so taken with Israel's salvation that he says he would willingly give up his own salvation to see Israel saved. 

Q2. A lot of people think Melchizedek was an incarnation of Christ in the same vein of the Old Testament "Angel of the Lord".  What do you think?

A2. Thanks for your question, and the simple answer is, "I don't know" and no one can know.  What's more, I seldom spend much time on unanswerable questions like this.  It is interesting to think about, but the main point here is that Melchizedek was real and he served as a picture of Christ. 

Q3. Should we tithe before or after taxes?

A3.  Great question and I suggest you look at the booklet I wrote called, "What About Money?" which you can access at www.thecreeksidechurch.org and click on resources.  The real answer to this question is about attitude, not money.  If you are trying to do the bare minimum and only give what you have to, your heart is not following God anyway, so the amount of money you give is the least of your problems.

I heard one person ask, "Should I tithe on the gross or the net?" and the pastor answered, "Do you want a gross blessing or a net blessing?"  Remember, we not only reap WHAT we sow, we also reap HOW we sow.

Thanks, "Creekers" for sending in your questions.  See you on Sunday.

Don

Questions From "Noah" May 17

Hey Blog Followers,

Thanks in advance for your questions.

Before I get to the questions from Sunday, let me apologize for not blogging recently, or should I say repent.  I promised you that if you send the questions, I will blog the answers, and you did and I didn't.  My site was down for a while, but I could have gotten it up sooner.  I'll try to do better at honoring your questions.

So here are the Q's from Sunday . . .

Q1.  Why is your blog  called Grady Dawn?

A1.  Grady Dawn is the name of our boat, which is a Grady White, so the name is a modified version of Grady Don, which was given to me by other fisherman friends.  I went with dawn, instead of Don, because I like to get up early and it is less ostentatious.  

Q2. Does God really "know" how everything will "turn out", or, does he have the ability to "see" all the infinite possibilities at each decision juncture (man's choice) and thus never be surprised by any outcome?  

A2. The short answer to your question is yes to both.  God both knows how everything will turn out and also knows all the possibilities at each juncture. He is never surprised by the outcome.  This is called "Cosmic Chess" by those who subscribe exclusively to the last part of the question, believing that God doesn't know how things will turn out, but knows all the possibilities.  

Since God is omniscient, meaning He knows everything, He would not be God if He didn't know both how things will turn out as well as all the potential possibilities.  If God knows all the possibilities, it is a small jump to believe that He also knows what will happen, since He is omniscient, thus He is never surprised.

Q3. Does the bird finding the olive branch indicate that plants were not destroyed in the flood?

A3. Good question with some deeper issues connected to it.  The simple answer to this question is yes, the plants were not necessary completely destroyed in the flood.  God's focus in destruction was only those forms of life that had "breathe", which would not include fish or plants.

However; as I taught on Sunday, it was 150 days before the waters fully receded.  This means that plants, which cannot live under water, would have been destroyed if they were under water the whole time.  So is there are reasonable way to explain an olive branch?  Yes.

Consider this. . . the world we know now is not like the world before the flood.  Creation scientists postulate, with good reason, that a vapor would have probably covered the earth giving a mean temperature of 75 degrees and a humidity of about 80.  There was only one continent, since the world was not yet divided (Gen. 10:25).  There also would have been no polar ice caps and vegetation would have grown all over the earth, including the mountains, which is significantly different that our current earth.

This huge amount of vegetation would account for the dinosaurs growing to a great size, since as reptiles, they can grow as long as their environment can support them.  I personally believe that man and dinosaurs lived together in the same world,as there is clear evidence to support this.   This view is opposed by evolutionists.  Lush vegetation and giant dinosaurs would also account for the vast oil reserves in this region and around the world.

All this to say, it is entirely possible in a pre-flood world that vegetation (olives) could have grown on mountains which may have been under water for a short period of time. This could account for a bird finding an olive branch on a mountain that perhaps had only been underwater a few days or weeks.

Thanks again for your questions and I'll see you on Sunday.

Don

How is Jesus Dying Just?

Q. How is Jesus dying just?  He is innocent.  Is it really just for one man to take the punishment for another?

A. This is a great question from yesterday's teaching, and shows some deep thought on the part of the person asking

First of all, it is important to remember that God is not "doing" this to Jesus, and Jesus has nothing say in the matter.  The entire Godhead was involved in saving mankind, and each member of the Godhead suffered equally in the sacrifice.

• Isaiah 53:10-12 says it was God's will to crush Jesus, so that mankind could be saved.
  
• Hebrews 9:14 says Christ was offered up by the Holy Spirit.
  
• John 10:17-18 says that Jesus willingly offered up His life to save mankind. 

You are right in saying that Jesus was innocent, but Jesus willingly chose to become guilty of the charge of mankind's sin in God's court of justice.  

II Cor. 5:21 says that , "God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us".  This means that God willingly allowed His son to become guilty of all the sin of mankind, past and future, and to pay the penalty for that sin.

Is it really just for Christ to take our punishment?  The answer is not only is it just because God says it is just (Romans 3:24-25),  it is pure mercy as well.

It is not only pure justice that is served by this means, but pure mercy and pure grace. Because of God's mercy, Jesus was offered up instead of us.  Because of grace, He was patient with mankind while waiting for Christ's sacrifice and remains patient with us today.

This is a brief answer.  For a more detailed response, I suggest you download the podcast of April 5, 2009 at www.thecreeksidechurch.org.

Peace in our time

As usual, we entertain questions from Sunday's teaching.  These questions came in this week.

Q. Are we supposed to be a peace at all times? In times of distress, how  does one define peace?

A.  Great question and thanks for asking.  God wants us to live a life of peace, but it is not practical or reasonable to be at peace all the time.  Even Jesus faced times if stress of loss of peace.  Read Matthew 26 about Jesus' time in the Garden of Gethsemane and you'll discover he was under tremendous stress.

The key is to not live there.  All of us face times of stress, but continually living without the peace of God is not what He wants for us.  Jesus was stressed when He went to the garden, but not when He left it.  He was at peace with His God and God's plan for His life.

So the goal is to live in peace and when our peace is taken, pray and ask God why and seek to regain it.  I believe that God wants us to live in large blocks of peace with an occasional stressful time, rather than the  other way around.